18 Months
by PhantomLegioner
Summary: After something goes wrong on a mission Lucy makes a decision to go training alone for 18 months to return for the S-Class Promotion Trial.
1. Mission in the castle

**Okay, this is my first story. So if you enjoy it or not I would appreciate reviews. You can criticize and tell me how to possibly improve. But I hope enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail**

Lucy, Natsu, Gray and Erza arrived infront of an old castle. The stone blocks it had been made of were covered by moss. The weather was chilly, because it was early March and the castle was on top of a high mountain.

"It's so cold here", Lucy complained, her teeth chattering against each other.

"Don't complain Lucy. Your rent is the reason we're are here, and you chose this mission after all", Gray said to her. The reward for completing the mission would be 120,000 jewels, which would mean everyone would get 30,000. Before they had gone to see Mr. Toshimoto who had told them about their mission. Team Natsu's objective would be to reclaim a book, which contained information about demons. Very dangerous demons. He had warned them that the thieves were mages of a dark guild. With this information they left to the direction the castle was in.

"I know. I guess this was my own fault for not taking a better set of clothes", she answered with a small smile. Lucy noticed that Natsu was taking a better look at her clothes.

"Waah! What are you wearing Lucy?", he said when he realized what she was wearing. Lucy was wearing a mini-skirt and a long sleeved white and blue jacket.

"I was in a hurry, because you all were ready for this trip much more quickly than I was. In the rush I forgot to change my skirt to trousers". She knew that it was a poor excuse, because everyone else had managed to dress in warmer clothes in a rush too. Since she was angry she decided to hit Natsu, who had fallen on the ground from shock, in the head. She left the others behind, and headed for the wooden double doors of the castle.

When Lucy reached the doors, she summoned Virgo, one of her Celestial Spirits.

"Open the Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!", Lucy called, while swinging one of her golden keys in the air. Virgo appeared from a cloud of smoke.

"Hime, do you want to punish me?", she asked.

Lucy hit her palm against her forehead while she mumbled "No I don't. Would you just dig a hole for me to the other side of these double doors, please?". After Virgo had done this she returned to the Spirit World. Lucy went through the hole and noticed that there was a cart infront of the hole which made it impossible to see this hole from the inner yard. She waited for Erza and the other two to catch up. When they did crawl through the hole, she suggested that they keep a timeout and think of a stragedy.

"Come on Lucy, why can't we go there and just kick their-", Natsu was whining until Erza hit him in the head to shut his mouth.

Erza glared at him, "Natsu shut up! Lucy clearly has a plan, and it would good if a block-head like you would listen carefully".

"This is how we'll progress from now on…", Lucy said in a quiet voice as the Erza, Gray and Natsu gathered around her.

* * *

"Now everyone should know the plan. Nod if you remember it", Lucy said in a tense voice. Gray and Erza nodded, but Natsu was scratching his pink hair with a confused look on his face. Lucy sighed heavily and begun from the beginning.

"I will make this as simple as I can, so that you can understand. I will go with Gray through that left door into the tower, and you and Erza will go through the one on the right to the other tower. After you get in start looking for the book.", she said slowly and calmly so that information could sink in.

"Yes I think I got this time. But what was the book's name?", Natsu replied to her.

"Of course you weren't paying attention when Mr. Toshimoto told us the name. Its name is Secrets of the Demons" Lucy told Natsu angrily.

"Time to go", Gray said before Natsu could answer.

Both towers would eventually lead to a central tower, so they decided to meet there. That was also the most likely place for the book to be in. The towers were across the inner yard and it was sunny, so they used the shadows to sneak in.

"Y-you go first", Lucy muttered to Gray. Lucy hated herself, because whenever they were approaching something dangerous she got scared and her legs started to shake.

"You really do get scared easily and we haven't even seen any of the dark mages. What would happen if you got separated from me?" he asked with a smile on his lips. As they were walking forward he continued "But I doubt that would happen". After he finished that sentence Lucy, who was merely few meters behind him, stopped suddenly. Now there were letters forming in the air: You can't go beyond this without defeating me. Both of them staring wide-eyed at the letters. It was rune magic. Lucy heard footsteps from behind and turned to see a person dressed in a black robe.

A clear woman voice said, "So you, young girl, will be my first opponent". The voice was so creepy that it sent shivers through her whole body. Lucy turned towards Gray and spoke reassuringly "You know that runes can't be broken with force so don't even try. I'll come to the central tower when I have finished this battle. You can't help me so go there and find the book. I think this same trap will be on the other side, so Natsu or Erza will join you there. I believe you will face another dark mage there. I will be fine so go. Gray looked hesitant at first, but as Lucy told him once more to go he turned with a 'be careful' and started to run towards the central tower. Lucy turned towards her opponent.

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As Lucy had thought the same trap was on the other path where Natsu and Erza were travelling.

"Natsu you must head towards the central tower to find the book. This is rune magic. The same magic that Fried used during the festival. Surely you remember that you couldn't break through it. I will handle this guy here and after I've done that I will come there. You should meet Lucy and Gray at the central tower" Erza explained to Natsu.

"All right. I'll leave this guy to you. Make sure to kick his ass!" he yelled while running to the central tower.

**Next chapter will propably come next week.**


	2. Lucy vs the dark mage

**Okay here's the second chapter. Please review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.  
**

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Lucy wasn't really as convinced as she had seemed, when she had talked to Gray before. She was observing the path they had come. There was only about 5 meters between the stone walls. The floor was a little bit damp.

"Why do I have to fight in a place like this, and the opponent is very strong too. Fighting in here would be very difficult", Lucy thought to herself. She reached to her hip to take her whip. When the whip was in her hands, she got ready to fight this mysterious woman.

"Are you planning to fight me with a whip? I thought you were a mage", the woman questioned.

"Fighting with magic here? Have you had a look at the space where we're going to fight?" Lucy asked her.

"Well, this place is quite narrow, but we can go backwards and forwards in this path. You can't go out of this tower, though. Time to begin our battle", she answered with a terrifying grin on her lips. Lucy swallowed and crouched a bit to be ready to dodge. Lucy's enemy raised her arm toward the ceiling, and bits of stone and dust started to fall down. Then a huge boulder of stone fell towards her, it was two or three meters in diameter. Lucy was about to go backwards, but then she remembered the rune spell and quickly dove forwards, hoping not to be crushed by the boulder. Lucy could feel shards of stone scraping her skin as it hit the floor. She was breathing heavily and noticed that she had jumped directly in front of the dark mage. She quickly scrambled back to where she had jumped from.

"What kind of magic is this? This is not some magic you encounter every day", she thought. Lucy was becoming calmer, so she tried to figure out if she had encountered this kind of magic in any book so far. Lucy came into a conclusion that she hadn't so she decided to ask her.

"Would you mind telling me what magic you are using. I haven't heard nor seen anything like that", Lucy said.

"Why would I tell you what kind of magic I use? I have already showed you. But this is enough talking. Come at me with all you've got. After that I shall finish you off", she said with a smirk.

"Don't underestimate me!" Lucy yelled, her anger flaring. Lucy got up and picked her whip from the ground. She swung her whip towards the woman, but she sidestepped and easily dodged. Lucy swung it many times in a row. The result was the same, she dodged easily. Panting, Lucy tried to think how hit her. She just seemed too fast. Lucy sighed and put the whip back to her hip.

"Is this your limit, all you can do? Now, then I will end this-", the dark mage said.

"I still have a wild card that I can use. Remember?" Lucy said interrupting her. When she looked puzzled Lucy took a golden key from her belt, where all of her keys were hanging.

"I haven't showed you my magic yet. Now I will. Open the Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" Lucy yelled. And Taurus appeared from a cloud of smoke.

"I will protect Lucy-sama's body!" Taurus yelled when exited the smoke.

"Taurus, would take care of that woman for me?" Lucy asked with a wink to Taurus.

"I will do anything to protect MY Lucy! Rampage!" he said when he hit the stone floor with his axe.

The stone floor cracked by the force of the hit. This hit landed on its target. She flew many meters backwards. Lucy and Taurus ran towards her.

"Keep on the attack, Taurus!" Lucy commanded him. So he did. He hit the ground dozen times before he stopped to gather his breath. When the dust had settled, they gasped and noticed that she was standing and didn't seem injured at all. Then many blocks of stone fell on Taurus.

"I- I'm sorry Lucy-sama", Taurus mumbled under the stones.

"Close the Gate of the Golden Bull!" Lucy said as she swung Taurus' key in the air.

"It seems he wasn't much of a help to you, young Celestial mage", she said coldly.

"Ho-How are you still unharmed after all those hits? Lucy asked her.

"Hmph. Something so weak like that can't harm me. Now I've had enough of this. Time for you to die", she said with murderous gleam in her eyes. When she was about to use her magic against Lucy Loke suddenly appeared and grabbed her from her right arm.

"I have promised to protect you, my love. I can't allow you to hurt her", Loke said. Lucy blushed slightly, but it was soon covered with fear, because the dark mage kicked Loke suddenly many meters into the stone wall. Loke coughed some blood from his mouth before he fell unconscious. Then she turned towards Lucy.

"Time for the goodbyes", she said coldly. Lucy could feel panic rising within herself. Lucy backed away to the side, because backwards was already the rune magic wall. The woman waved her arm in the air and suddenly it disappeared. Lucy thought that this was her change to get away, but it was a trap. A huge, rectangular, stone dropped in front of her and another five meters behind her. She turned around to find the dark mage in front of her. As the woman walked near the wall on Lucy's right side, Lucy went near the wall on her left to keep maximum distance between them. The woman dropped her hood down and Lucy could see her face. Her skin colour was a little pale, and she had dark-blue hair. Then she formed a magic seal in the wall behind her and the stone started to erode until all that was left were two sharp-edged stone spears. They were about fifty centimetres long. Then she threw them, with magic, really fast. Lucy could feel tremendous pain on the left side and on the right side of her ribcage. The stone spears went through her stomach under her ribs and stuck her to the stone wall. Through the pain Lucy could barely hear the woman say something.

"My name is Ultear, and I belong to a certain guild. The guild's name is Grimoire Heart. We'll attack your guild's S-Class Wizard Promotion Trial next year. The Trial will be held at the end of next year. In case you survive alive from here, which would be a miracle, I will place a self-destruct spell on you. If you try to speak about this to anyone the spell will destroy you before you can", Ultear said to Lucy through her pain. Then she put her hand in the middle of Lucy's stomach and did a magic seal and said this exact same thing.

"So the spell was functioned by these words or anything related to them", Lucy thought before she passed out.


	3. Erza vs Azuma

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail!**

**I've made few changes to my writing. Even if I haven't gotten may reviews I'm happy, since many have added this story to their favourites. Anyway, here's chapter 3, I hope you enjoy.**

**Please review.  
**

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Erza, unaware of the condition Lucy was in, continued her battle. Her opponent was fiercely powerful. She was already exhausted and had barely managed to injure his enemy. The enemy revealed himself as Azuma from the dark guild Grimoire Heart. Until now Erza had only used her Heart Kreuz Armor.

"Is this all a Fairy Tail wizard is capable of? You disappoint me. You must be able to be better than this if you wish to have any changes of beating me. But of course you have none!" Azuma mocked her. He laughed at his own joke, but Erza remained cool. Although she seemed cool in reality she was boiling inside with anger and frustration.

'_This is not good. I have already used too much magical power against him. I guess this was expectable. After all, he's a wizard from, the strongest dark guild, Grimoire Heart. So far he has only dodged my attacks, but he has done that too easily. He hasn't fought with his full potential ', _Erza thought inside her head.

"Time for me to get really serious with you. Re-equip! Heavens Wheel Armor! Don't take me too lightly from now on", she mocked him back. Erza ran towards Azuma, and slashed at him with her right sword, but Azuma dodged as easily as before. Erza had anticipated this so the right hand swing was quickly followed by left, right, left , right and with a left. Erza had a plan, she was driving him towards the stone wall that was behind him. Azuma was having more trouble dodging these attacks, and he didn't notice that he was approaching the wall until it was late. His back hit the wall.

' _Yes! He fell for it', Erza celebrated._

" Let's finish this once and for all Azuma! Blumenblatt!" she said while striking at him with her own swords and those that were floating around her. But Azuma used some weird magic to merge with the wall, thus evading her attack. Azuma came out of the wall about five meters to her left.

"So you have been hiding this Merging Magic all the time. Do you have any other magic abilities?" Erza said while panting from the effort. Then her Heavens Wheel Armor vanished and she was back in her usual armor and had her usual sword.

'_Just how strong is he? I have almost used all of my magic power. I can still re-equip into one other armor. I'll use it! My most powerful armor,' _she thought.

"Yes, you are correct. I have been hiding Merging Magic all this time, because I haven't needed it, until now. Your attack could have given me a worse injury and I can't let that happen. I've still got other magic that I can use. I'll warn you. I use this to attack," he replied, confessing that he has other magic he can use. Erza quickly abandoned her plan to re-equip into her Armadura Fairy armor and instead re-equipped into Adamantine Armor to defend herself against Azuma's attack.

"Ah, you are planning to defend yourself. Wise choice," he said, smiling while merging with the stone. Erza was looking and turning around to see where he would come out.

"I'm here," said a voice. She turned around and was facing magic circle. She hastily lifted her shields in front of her. She felt a huge pushing power and her legs were starting to slip, but she managed to block it somehow.

'_Explosion Magic? This is really bad!' _Erza thought to herself_. _Then she noticed movement behind her and only managed to lift one shield to block the attack, but it turned out to be a good thing. In an instant he was on the other side and released another attack from the other side. Erza was now being crushed from both sides.

'_I will not lose! I can't die here. My nakama need me!' _she was angrily telling herself. She put her effort into deflecting the explosions, and with a yell of fury managed to deflect them to the walls. But this also destroyed her Adamantine Armor.

"Impressive. It seems every Fairy Tail mage isn't so weak, but looks like you have used up all of your magical power. And I think that was your strongest defensive armor," he said.

Puzzled by what he had said Erza asked "What do you mean by ' it seems every Fairy Tail mage isn't so weak'".

"Have you looked around us in a while?" Azuma asked her. Erza looked around. At first she couldn't see anything different from before, except the mildly destroyed walls, but then she saw that the Rune Magic spell had disappeared.

'_How has it disappeared? I haven't even defeated him. Could it be that he has ended the spell?'_ Erza wondered. Azuma noticed her troubled look, and sighed.

"No, I don't control this or the other Rune Magic spell," he answered to her unspoken question. When he said that Erza realized that this same trap was on the path that Lucy and Gray had taken.

"So then if this spell disappeared it means Gray or Lucy managed to beat their opponent, who had created these spells," Erza celebrated.

"No, it doesn't always mean that. Yes that is the case IF the user is knocked unconscious or killed. This can also be shut down by the user, and in this case the latter one is the correct one. I don't feel like killing you now, so our match is over. He used his magic to merge with the stone floor, but stopped when his waist had merged.

"Aah. I almost forgot to tell you an important fact about the other battle. The enemy there was also very powerful. My comrade's name is Ultear, and her opponent was a blond-haired Stellar Mage. It seems the Stellar Mage was quite mortally wounded when Ultear left," Azuma told her with a wide sadistic smile. He laughed loudly and merged the rest of his body with the stone floor to evade Erza's slash at him. Erza felt a wave of nausea and anger rise inside her.

'_I have to hurry to Natsu and Gray! Lucy's life is in danger!' _before hurrying towards the central tower.

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**Just to let evryone know, I will change the Adventure category into Tragedy. I think that fits better.**


	4. Saving Lucy and heading back to Magnolia

**I'm sorry for not updating this for a while. I can't come up with a good explanation so I'll just confess: I've been lazy. But I hope you enjoy chapter 4.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail  
**

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Erza was running along the path to central tower. It felt to her that she had been running for hours, but in reality it had been just over five minutes since he had stopped her battle against, the dark mage, Azuma. She couldn't afford to stop. Too much was at stake. One of her important nakama's life was in line. She had been running all these five minutes full speed to reach Gray and Natsu. Erza was very exhausted, using nearly all of her magic power against Azuma, and this running was draining her strength rapidly. Finally she heard noises up ahead.

She could hear Natsu and Gray's voices, but among them Erza couldn't hear Lucy's which made her insides tighten a knot. As Erza entered the large room she saw Natsu and Gray battling another member from Grimoire Heart. Erza slid to a stop. The room had tables that had fallen over or been broken while the mages were battling.

Erza was gathering her breath at the doorway when Natsu went for his enemy, his fists in fire.

"I'll burn you to a crisp!" Natsu yelled at his opponent when he charged towards him. "Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon!" But the enemy swiftly jumped backward and evaded this attack with ease. Natsu only ended up doing damage to the floor and not to his intended target.

"Don't forget about me! Ice Make Lance!" said Gray when an ice lance was shot towards this dark mage. He didn't care much about this attack either. He just lifted his and suddenly something black engulfed his hand. When the ice reached that mysterious black thing it melted almost instantly.

'_What is that? It must be fire since it can melt ice so easily,' _Erza took a look around and noticed that there were many puddles of water around the room. Erza walked a little bit further into the room, and that's when Natsu heard her footsteps. Gray also turned to look who it was, when Natsu's focus turned away from the battle in front of them. They noticed her and smiled widely. Erza didn't return the smile.

"Erza! Did you beat that guy back there?" Natsu asked still wearing that smile. Erza looked on the ground, embarrassed.

"No, Natsu I didn't beat him. I'm sorry," answered Erza weakly.

"But then how did you get here? You were behind that stupid spell that blocked your way here," Natsu said with a puzzled look on his face.

"Yes! Then this means Lucy beat that dark mage she had to face back in that other path to here!" Gray said. Relief was clear on his face like sun in the sky.

When Erza was about to answer that it necessarily wasn't so Azuma rose from the floor.

"You! Why did you come here?" Erza hissed at him.

"Can't you tell? I have already defeated you so I came here to see if these guys are stronger than you," he said matter-of-factly."And they seem to be since Zancrow hasn't finished this battle. But he has always been weak". Azuma moved his head to dodge the black fire ball that had been sent by Zancrow's fist.

"Me? Weak? Are you stupid or something? The fact that this girl is alive means that you were having fun and playing around. You aren't the only one who can have fun and play with their enemies," Zancrow answered angrily.

"Yes, you are correct. I've been having fun, but so has she," he said pointing his finger towards the woman who had emerged to the central tower from the other path, opposite to Erza. Erza looked at this woman, anger rising within her.

"Where is she? What have you done to her? Where is Lucy?" Erza asked, almost yelling at her. She summoned her sword to her hand and charged at her, but she lowered her head and Erza only caught air.

"Aah, you are back, Ultear. How was your enemy, the blond girl. Is she still alive?" Azuma asked the woman.

"She disappointed me greatly. Being a Fairy Tail wizard I expected more from her. She tried even using her Spirits, but they were disappointing too. And it's very unlikely that she would be alive anymore or very long if she still is," Ultear said, sighing. Erza's mood dropped instantly after hearing those words. Gray's face was a mixture of pain, guilt and anger. But Natsu's facial expression was the usual: it was confused.

"Natsu!" Erza exploded. "They are talking about Lucy!" The realization hit him.

"Lucy… Where is she?" he shouted at the girl whose name was Ultear. She stopped and turned to face them. Ultear pointed her finger at the path she had come through.

"She is that way, but I suggest you don't go there. You won't like what you will see and I don't think you can save her anymore," Ultear answered ALMOST sympathetically. Natsu, Gray and Erza all turned, simultaneously, towards the path she had pointed at. Ultear walked to the bookshelf that was in the other end of the room and picked up a book.

Erza, Natsu and Gray stopped when Ultear was in front of them. She had just suddenly appeared there. They saw that she had a book in her hand.

"You will need this… to complete your mission," she said as she handed them the book. Erza grabbed it and hurried into the path with Natsu and Gray. Azuma and Zancrow started to head after them, but Ultear stopped them and gave them a meaningful look.

"We will let them go. For now," she said. Both of them understood what she meant.

They had only ran for a few minutes when Natsu stopped.

"Natsu what are you doing? We have to hurry and find Lucy befor-" Erza was saying when he was interrupted by Gray. Erza scowled at Gray.

"He's smelling the air," he answered, hope clear in his voice. Before Erza could say anything Natsu yelled out loud.

"I can smell her," he said and sniffed the air again. He hesitated. "But I also smell a lot of blood," he whispered barely loud enough for them to hear him. Then he hurried forward and turned to face the wall. They noticed that the stone there was different from the others around. Natsu burst through in a hurry. The sight was horrifying: Lucy lay against the wall,pinned by two stone spears, and Erza noticed that Loki had been hit deep in the stone wall. All they felt was sorrow, anger and guilt, for letting her battle alone. Erza could feel tears forming in her eyes.

"Is s-Is she dead?" she asked very quietly. She could see that Natsu and Gray were crying too. Nobody dared to answer that question, fearing that if they said it would become true. They moved closer to unmovable Lucy. They sat beside her and cried to console each other. Erza couldn't feel anything… if you don't count unbearable sadness.

"Lucy. Lycy don't die. You can't die. You can't leave us all alone! Wake up!" Erza said, tears flowing down her cheeks. She looked at Lucy and saw a miracle. Her eyes were open, even if slightly, and she had a small smile on her lips.

"Lucy! You are alive!" Erza cried out in joy. Natsu and Gray lifted their heads, and when they saw that she was alive, dried their tears.

"I knew you wouldn't die so easily," Natsu said as he slapped Lucy gently on her head. She coughed blood.

"Natsu, you idiot! Don't do that to a wounded person!" Gray said, panicking that something terrible would happen to Lucy.

"I'm sorry guys. I'm such a burden to you every time we go somewhere where is dangerous," she said sadly.

"Don't worry about that. We will get you to hospital, so don't die on us now," Erza said. Lucy nodded."Gray, create an ice saw and saw those stone spears' ends off," Erza instructed.

"Ice Make Saw!" he said, creating an ice saw.

"Why won't we just pull them out?" Natsu asked.

"There is one good reason for that Natsu. Right now they stop me dying from blood-loss," Lucy explained to the block-head.

"Oh. I see," he replied embarrassed.

"Done. Let's get Lucy back to Magnolia and in hospital," Gray said when he and Natsu lifted Lucy from the ground.

"I'm sorry. Your clothes will be covered in blood. Ouch" she apologized.

"Are you okay?" Natsu asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about it. I'm okay. Could you hurry, please, I'm starting to feel dizzy, " she answered to Natsu. They hurried out of the castle.

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**I'll try to get the next chapter written during the weekend and as always I appreciate all the reviews I get. So please review.**


	5. The magic four wheeler

**Okay here is the 5th chapter for my story. Sorry it took so long to get here, I've been busy with school and been lazy :D. And I have also watched other animes so that has taken some time. Next week there will probably not be a chapter but the next there should be. But I want to thank all these nice people who have reviewed my story:Footster26,Maya4yuki,kisshufan4ever,Shiinx,LinG08,MaJorReader619,Rika Neru,Raven Vongola and ICEBREAK94. I hope you keep reviewing and others are welcome too. But I'll stop my blabbering here and hope you enjoy the next chapter. :D**

**Disclaimer:I don't own Fairy Tail  
**

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They were hurrying down mountain road that led away from the old castle where the mission had taken place. It was hard to go down quickly while carrying the wounded Lucy. When they left the castle they had decided that Gray and Natsu would take turns in carrying Lucy on their backs. Erza was in front of them, guarding, in case those dark mages would attack again.

"Natsu, would you mind carrying me first?" Lucy asked from the dragon slayer. He flashed his usual goofy grin as an answer. Lucy couldn't help but to smile back, even if the smile was weak and small. Suddenly she climbed from his back to the ground with a shocked expression.

"Lucy! What are you doing? Is something wrong?" Gray asked. Lucy tried to walk back to the castle but she lost her balance immediately. Erza caught her.

"What's wrong?" Erza questioned, now very worried about her friend.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"Who? If you mean Loki, he already went back to the Spirit world to recover from his injuries. Don't worry about him. He will be fine" Erza reassured Lucy. She helped Lucy to Natsu and Lucy climbed to his back for a piggy-back ride.

"Let's hurry. We need get to that town that's next to this mountain" Gray said. Natsu and Erza nodded. Lucy didn't have strength to do that, she felt very tired and powerless.

"Don't worry about me too much Natsu. I feel really tired ," she whispered in his ear, "I'm probably going to lose consciousness in a mom-". Her head fell against his shoulder. He felt her breathing so everything was fine.

"Let's get Lucy back home," Natsu said determined to save her. Under the cloudy afternoon sky they started a long journey to the bottom. They ran in a gentle, but fast , manner.

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Lucy heard voices… she felt something supporting her back. Slowly she was recovering her consciousness. When she recovered all of it, she saw three familiar persons looking at her with concerned expressions. Lucy was resting against a tree.

Her wounds ached like they were in fire, her head hurt like hell, the world was spinning around her and her mouth was dry. She pointed at the flagon that was hanging from Natsu's hand by a strap.

"Do you want water?" he asked gently. Lucy nodded weakly and he lifted it on her lips. She drank a few mouthfuls but then she had to stop to cough for a moment. She rested her head against the tree.

'_So it's a cloudy day, huh'_

"How long have I been unconscious?" she asked.

"I'd say about two to three hours," Erza answered, "It's Gray's turn to carry you for the rest of the way. If you are ready to continue". Lucy nodded and scrambled up to climb on Gray's back, but she couldn't get up.

"Let me help you," Erza said kindly. She helped Lucy on Gray's back and they started running again. While Lucy tried to stay awake she remembered back to the day when they had taken this mission…

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_**Flashback**_

_**It was the usual day in Fairy Tail: Natsu and Gray were bickering and were getting other people involved after hitting them or spilling their food or drink, Cana was drinking, Levi was reading a book and Lucy sat on her usual chair. She was very hardly trying to ignore the ruckus, but even that couldn't make her facial expression change from worried to angry. Mirajane noticed this.**_

"_**Lucy-chan is something wrong?" she asked with her ever-present smile. Lucy picked up her orange juice and took a sip of it. It was refreshing and calming.**_

"_**No, nothing is wrong," she tried to lie.**_

"_**Don't lie to me, please," Mirajane warned, "I can tell that it's something".**_

"_**Sorry," she mumbled.**_

"_**It's him," she said, winking.**_

"_**Huh? Who are you talking about now?" Lucy asked confusion on her face. Smiling Mira pointed her finger towards the brawling Natsu. Lucy followed the finger and at first she didn't get it but then it her. Mira thought that Natsu had done something idiotic again. Normally Lucy would have blushed wildly, but this time she didn't care.**_

"_**No, it's not about Natsu. It's about this," Lucy said and lifted a paper so that Mirajane could see it. This is what it said:**_

_**Dear miss Lucy, we have only got half of the rent from the last two months. We are afraid that if you can't pay the WHOLE rent this month we have to get another lodger.**_

"_**Ah. I see," Mirajane said slightly embarrassed about her previous actions,**_

" _**But why won't you go on a mission?" she asked. Lucy sighed.**_

"_**Well… I was planning to planning to ask Gray, Natsu and Erza to come with me, but as you can see those two are fighting and Erza isn't at the guild right now," Lucy told to Mirajane. After she finished her sentence a certain pink haired dragon slayer came crashing at the bar desk, knocking Lucy's orange juice over. Lucy snapped.**_

"_**Natsu!" she roared. The whole guild seemed to freeze at this sudden outburst. It was rare for Lucy to get this mad. Natsu very slowly turned around to face an angry Lucy when he finally did, sweat was falling from his forehead. He tried to mumble something but Lucy didn't listen. She pointed her finger towards the ground in front of her.**_

"_**Come here," she hissed murderously ,"You too Gray". Both of them were as scared they would be in front of Erza, so they complied without a complaint. She grabbed them by their collars and dragged them behind her.**_

"_**I've had enough of your foolish fight," she continued, "So we are going on a mission and I will choose which on it is, okay?". Lucy went to the mission board and looked at the missions. Her eye was caught by one of them. She picked the sheet up and quickly read it through. In this mission they would have to retrieve a stolen book.**_

'_**Seems easy enough. And the prize isn't too bad either: 120,000 jewels.' Lucy thought.**_

"_**This is the one we will do and inform Erza about this," Lucy said to the two boys sitting on the floor as she gave them the sheet, "And one more thing. Happy won't be coming with us for this mission". This shocked Natsu to the core of his being.**_

"_**Why? Why can't he come with us?" Natsu complained.**_

"_**If anything goes wrong on this mission I don't want him to get hurt or get lost in the castle," Lucy explained. At that moment Happy flew in with Erza walking behind him.**_

"_**Good timing Happy, Erza. We have a new mission. Natsu and Gray have the paper and you can discuss with them about it," she said, smiling. After Lucy said that she stormed out from the guild.**_

"_**What was wrong with her?" Erza asked. The other guild members pointed their at Gray and Natsu.**_

_**

* * *

**_

Without her noticing it Lucy had gone unconscious again. Now that she was awake she noticed that they had arrived in the town, at the bottom of the mountain. Gray was sitting beside her.

"Where are Natsu and Erza?" she asked weakly.

"Oh. You are awake. That's good," he said with a smile, "Yes! They got it!".

They were on a magic four wheeler. Erza was driving it.

"Ooh. So we are going to use that to get Magnolia. Nice cho-" Lucy was saying before she went unconscious for the last time…

"Oi! Lucy, wake up! Don't die on us now!"Gray pleaded as she lifted her from the ground and put her on her side on the back seat of the magic four wheeler. Gray sat beside her and Natsu and Erza were sitting on the roof.

"Let's hurry! With this we should get to Magnolia in three hours!" Gray shouted to them, "But none of us has enough magic power left for all three hours so everyone will do one hour and all the time somebody will watch over Lucy, okay?". Erza and Natsu nodded and, with Erza as the first driver, they sped towards Magnolia.


	6. The surgery

**Now many of the exams have been cleared and I have more time to write my story. Thank you for your reviews and I hope you enjoy chapter 6.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail  
**

* * *

They drove fast on the road that led to Magnolia. Natsu, Erza and Gray, who was driving, were only few minutes away from the Magnolia Hospital and getting Lucy there for treatment. Lucy was still unconscious and her breathing was shallow. Luckily the bleeding had stopped early in the journey, thanks to Gray, but still there was no guarantee that she would survive. The wounds she had received were very bad and she had a massive blood-loss. It was a miracle she was still even alive.

Erza was sitting in the backseats of the magic four wheeler, Lucy's head on her lap. She looked at her, guilt in her eyes. She gritted her teeth.

'_I'm sorry Lucy… I should have been there to help you, I should have protected you. Why did you fight against an opponent so strong? _She didn't know why Lucy had decided to fight, but what amazed her more was that she was still alive. A normal person would have died from those wound by now. It was like she was keeping herself alive by willpower alone.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. I'm sorry that I wasn't there to help you when you would have needed my help. So please don't die, I wouldn't be able stand the fact that you would be gone," Erza whispered in Lucy's ear. Erza caressed Lucy's hair while they approached Magnolia city.

"Erza! Magnolia City is in front of us! We should reach it in ten minutes!" Gray yelled from the driver's seat. Erza came to back to reality from her thoughts after hearing that.

"Natsu, when we get to the town could you hurry ahead of us into the hospital and inform them about Lucy?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied, "She isn't going to die, right?" Erza's face went grim for a moment, but then she smiled.

"She will be fine," she answered in a confident tone.

'_Did you hear Lucy? You can't die. Make sure you survive,' _she thought to herself, hoping her thoughts would reach her.

They entered the city and immediately had to slow down considerably.

"Natsu, go!" Erza said. Natsu jumped down on the road and started running towards Magnolia Hospital, a big building in the city. While Natsu could take side roads, the magic four wheeler had to use the main road which was full of people. They went as fast as they dared to without hurting other people.

"At this rate it will take at least half an hour to get to the hospital," Gray whined."And Lucy might not have that much time…" he added silently.

"I will get us space," Erza said, climbing on the roof of the magic four wheeler. She took a deep breath.

"Get out of the way! Give us space, we have an injured person inside and she needs immediate medical care! Tell everyone move to the side of the road that leads to Magnolia Hospital!" she yelled on top of her lungs. Erza could hear whispers in the crowds as descended back inside. "That is Titania from Fairy Tail," the crowd near them whispered among themselves.

"Let's go now, while the road is open," Erza said to Gray.

"Right, let's hurry up," he replied as he sped towards the hospital.

When Erza and, an exhausted, Gray arrived at the yard of the hospital, the doctors were already waiting for them with a stretcher. The magic four wheeler slid to a stop as Gray braked. Erza opened the side door and lifted the unconscious Lucy on the stretcher.

"These wounds are horrible!" one of the five doctors exclaimed, "Let's hurry and get her in a surgery." They pushed the stretcher inside the hospital, and in there along many pathways in the surgery. While heading to the surgery room they asked what was Lucy's blood type. Erza's brains tried to find the answer from somewhere, but couldn't find it. Suddenly an unsuspected person told them the answer.

"Her blood type is O-," Natsu said. Both Erza and Gray were taken by surprise that Natsu knew her blood type.

"How do you know her blood type?" Gray asked. Natsu shrugged and looked away.

"Lucy told me it after her father tried to get her back. She said that in case something like this would happen to her it might be good that I would know it," he answered quietly.

"This is bad news for us," the surgeon said, "That's a rare blood type and we don't have that much, but I think it should be enough for her. Takayami, go get every O- bag you can find and come surgery room A. Takayami, one of the five doctors, ran to another direction.

The doctors entered surgery room A, taking Lucy with them. After the "surgery" sign started to glow red, Gray, Erza and Natsu sat down to wait for news on Lucy's condition. Not long after the other doctors had entered the surgery room Takayami ran in with almost a dozen O- bags with him. Suddenly Gray jumped up, startling Erza.

"We have to inform the others about Lucy," he said.

"Who are you talking about?" Erza asked.

"Other guild members."

"Hmm. You are right," she said, "Natsu, we'll go to the guild and tell others about the dark mages and Lucy. You wait here, in case they have something to tell."

"Okay," Natsu answered. Erza and Gray went to the guild and told everyone everything that had happened. When they reached the point in the story where they had to tell everyone that Lucy had been wounded very badly and she might not make it many things happened. Mirajane started crying, Cana stopped drinking alcohol, Master fell off from the bar desk and everybody had a shocked expression on their faces'. Then suddenly everyone tried to get to hospital, but Erza stopped them.

"If you all go to the hospital, all you will do is cause a ruckus and that might cause the doctors make a fatal mistake. Then Lucy would die for sure and I don't think that is what you want," she said to them, "Natsu is at the hospital and he will come to tell us if he gets some news. Good or bad." They all sat down and calmed themselves. Everybody sat in the guild hall, silent and gloomy.

It had been nearly five hours when Natsu broke through the door. Everybody waited tense at which news he brought with him, good or bad. Natsu emerged from cloud of dust he had created when he kicked the door in…

* * *

**Sorry to leave guys on such huge cliffhanger, but I hope you can wait until the next chapter. Should come next week or maybe tomorrow. Who knows?**


	7. Decision

**Sorry it took so long to write chapter 7, but I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Please review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail  
**

* * *

Natsu emerged from cloud of dust he had created when he kicked the door in…

Shadows were covering his face so nobody could see his expression. The air felt heavy with tension, and everyone was silent. No sounds were there for anyone to hear. Every member of the guild were waiting for Natsu to speak. Few drops of liquid fell on the floor… Gasps were heard all over the guild room…

"She's fine! Doctors said that she is okay for now!" Natsu shouted. His face was covered in layers of sweat and dust and he had a huge grin on his face. Cheers broke around the guild.

"Wait. So you weren't crying, Natsu?" Erza asked. Natsu looked at her with a ridiculous expression.

"Of course I wasn't. Those were just drops of sweat and why would I be crying when Lucy is fine?" When Erza was about to answer, Master jumped down from the bar desk. Everyone's eyes were following Master as he walked to Natsu.

"Natsu what exactly do you mean by saying that Lucy is okay? After Erza's description of what kind of wounds she suffered there is no way she just is okay. What did the doctors tell you?" Master asked. Now everyone looked at Natsu for an answer. He looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Well… Give me a moment to recall what they told me," he said.

"If I remember correctly, they said this: She is okay for now. We've managed to stable her condition and she is under our supervision, but in order to ensure that her wounds heal as well as possible we put her in drug induced coma for two to three weeks. Until then she won't be woken, if she'd be waken too early and she'd start moving her wounds would open again. In that case she might really die," Natsu recited. Erza couldn't believe her ears. It was amazing for Natsu to remember something so long.

When Erza got over the shock she asked a question from Natsu "So we can't see her for the next two-three weeks?"

"No, they didn't say that. They said that we can visit her one at a time, if we don't try to wake her or anything like that," Natsu answered, "Starting tomorrow." Erza saw Master head back to the bar desk. When he reached it, he climbed on it to get the attention of everyone. When all the chattering didn't quiet down in a moment he whistled hard. Now all the heads were facing him.

"As you all have heard, Lucy is fine and we can see her one at a time. Everyone can see her, but I will go see her first and then her teammates and after them the rest from the guild," Master said with an evil spark in his eyes. This evil spark didn't escape Erza's gaze.

"No, Master, you can't go see Lucy alone, so you won't be the first to see her. As for the rest I don't care who goes after who, but I think we should let the ones who are closest to Lucy see her first," Erza said. Everybody agreed, except Master who was sulking behind the bar desk.

Every member of the guild were allowed to Lucy. Natsu first and after him in went Erza, Gray, Mirajane and Levy.

Erza didn't like what she saw in Lucy's room. Lucy laying in bed, supported by all kinds of medical machines.

It was two and a half week until the doctors decided to stop the drug induced coma. The next day Lucy woke up…

* * *

She opened her eyes, but had to close due the light. Blinking, she managed to open them fully. She saw Erza sitting in the chair, reading a book.

"Where am I?" Lucy asked. Her throat was raw and she wasn't able to speak very much yet.

"Oh, Lucy! You are awake. You are in Magnolia Hospital. You've undergone a surgery, and after that you were in a drug induced coma, until a day ago," Erza explained. Lucy thought about all that had happened. She played all her memories in her head, trying to organize them. Her last memory was that she was laying on the ground and then it was all black.

"Did you bring me here" she asked. Erza nodded."Thanks."

"Would you like something to eat?" Erza asked. Lucy shook her head.

"I'd like to sleep a little more," Lucy said.

"Of course, see you tomorrow," Erza answered.

"So it's night," Lucy said, more to herself. Erza smiled and left room, turning off the lights.

Lucy tried to turn to her side, but then noticed that she had been tied so she couldn't do that.

'_Nice thinking doctors. If I had done that I might have opened my wounds'. _So she put her head comfortably and drifted to sleep.

Over the next two days she met her fellow guild members, talking with them. Soon she got tired to tell everyone that she was fine, so when Levy left Lucy told her to tell the next one not to ask if she was fine. After a week the doctors said that she could walk. She walked around the hospital, her strength returning to her.

"Erza, could you bring me some of my clothes?" Lucy asked when almost a week had passed from the day the doctors said that she could walk around the hospital.

"Sure," she said, "But why do you need clothes? You get clothes from here."

"I'd like to walk in the city. I don't like staying inside all the time and these clothes aren't the best possible choice for that," Lucy said. The clothes were made from thin cloth. Erza laughed.

"You're right about that. I'll bring you some clothes later this evening."

"Thanks"

The nurse was leaving Lucy's room and she was pretending to be sleeping. When Lucy was sure the nurse was gone she grabbed her keys from the desk beside her. The keys she had gotten few days earlier on a "walk" around the city. Every night she had seen nightmares about Ultear and her promise to attack her precious guild.

"I open the Gate of the Lion!" she whispered. Loki appeared in cloud of smoke. Few days earlier she had told Loki about her plans. At first he had rejected her plan, but then after she told him that she had to do this he agreed.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Lucy nodded once and started to take her hospital pajamas off.

"No peeking. Turn around," Lucy said sternly. Loki chuckled as he turned around.

When Lucy got her traveling clothes on they descended on the ground and they started sneaking towards Lucy's house in the dark, but warm, spring night.

Lucy opened the door to her apartment and they went to do their tasks. Loki went to get her bags and stuffed Lucy's clothes in it and few books Lucy had wanted with them. Lucy went to her desk and a paper. The paper was meant for her guild members.

On the paper for her fellow guild members she wrote:

'_I'm sorry to leave without telling to you. I've my reasons, ones that I can't tell to anyone, but I will return after eighteen months. So Natsu don't try to come after me, because I can't come before that time. I will train with Loki and my other spirits and I will return stronger than ever. Wait for my arrival after eighteen months._

_Yours sincerely Lucy_

After writing that letter of goodbye for her friends she left Magnolia on 1st of May . She would train hard, she had to become stronger so she could protect them.

'_Believe in me, Natsu, Erza, Gray and everybody else. When I'll come back I'll be strong enough to protect you from Grimoire Heart.'_

* * *

**The next chapter will be about Lucy's return and I bet you all want to see what she has gained from her training. I will do my absolute best to get it written this weekend.**_  
_


	8. Return

**Okay, here's chapter 8 of this adventure. It's good that I wasn't able get this here yesterday, because now I cut out a part that didn't fit here very well. But I hope you enjoy it, and please review. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail  
**

* * *

A blond-haired woman walked on the road leading to Magnolia. It was early November and there were few inches of snow covering the ground. It was snowing, though you barely could notice it. The woman was wearing worn-out traveling trousers, covered in dust from the long journey, and a very worn-out jacket. It had once been green, but now its color was a mix of mud, dust and sweat.

Lucy wasn't wearing a hat, letting her hair flow in the small breeze. Loki was walking beside her and he was wearing a suit that was as clean as always.

"It feels good to return back. Nostalgic, I would say," Lucy said smiling a big, warm smile. A small amount yellow magical power floated around her. Loki lifted his glasses.

"Yes, it truly feels great to be back in Magnolia. Lucy, I suggest you still suppress your magical power a little more," he answered. Lucy frowned.

"Why? I'm already suppressing it quite a bit."

"Well, I believe you don't want to cause cracks to houses or the road. You having that glow means, according to my calculations, you have 40% of your power instantly at your disposal," he chuckled.

"Sorry to prove you wrong, but currently I only have about 25%," she answered, "But I guess you're right. I don't want to pay for the repairs if I can avoid it." The flowing magical power disappeared.

Now they were coming to the last long sweeping turn before Magnolia. After this turn they could see the city. Lucy sprinted ahead.

"Ah, Lucy, wait!" Loki yelled as he sprinted after her. Suddenly Lucy stopped and Loki crashed at her back. She didn't stagger at all.

"Why did you stop? That hurt!" Loki whined, caressing his nose. She pointed a shaky finger towards the city.

"Tell me I didn't cause that! Didn't I suppress my magical power enough?" she said, shocked. Loki turned to look at Magnolia. What he saw was shocking: Houses at the edge of the town were in ruins, smoke and fires around the city and this seemed to continue further into the city. Then they heard a loud roar and saw a monster. It was a very big lizard. It had four legs and a long tail. Lucy thought she had seen it before.

"Loki, don't you think that looks like an Alpine Lizard?" Lucy asked. He nodded.

"I think so too, but I've never seen one so big," he answered. Lucy smiled devilishly.

"I wonder what Fairy Tail is doing. Let's go lend them a hand. I don't need to hold back now, do I?" she asked.

"No, I don't think you need to," Loki said. He put his hand on her shoulder.

"Let's go!" Lucy said as she created a magic circle beneath her. She vanished and reappeared on the sky above Magnolia. She had already summoned Sagittarius, Virgo and Scorpio to help Loki. Lucy saw Natsu, Erza, Gray and many other Fairy Tail wizards fighting against the giant Alpine Lizard. Other people were trying to put the flames out. She spotted that a river was running beside the flames.

"Could you go help the humans? I'll summon Aquarius on the river," Lucy said. They nodded and headed down. Lucy vanished again and appeared near the river.

"Open the Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!" she said and Aquarius appeared in the river.

"Could you put that fire out?" Lucy asked.

"Like hell I would do that! I can't bother to do that. And where is Scorpio? He just disappeared, so you probably summoned him, " Aquarius said angrily.

'_Always the same.'_ Lucy thought.

"Near the fire there are people, so be careful with using your powers," she answered, "And Scorpio is there too," she added quietly. Aquarius didn't miss the last part.

"Okay, I'll be super careful, but only because he's there. I couldn't care less about the others," she said moodily.

"Ok, I have to go myself too."

Lucy appeared again on the sky. She looked at the battle. It seemed as if the Fairy Tail wizards were in trouble. Suddenly Natsu looked up…

* * *

Natsu was exhausted from fighting this weird animal. Its scales were hard and it none of their attacks seemed to have any effect on the monster.

Suddenly he felt a very powerful magical power nearby. It felt familiar…

'_Nobody in Fairy Tail has magical power this powerful, except Grandpa. But he's out of town right now so it can't be him.'_ Then he remembered. Gildartz.

'_But Gildartz magical power isn't exactly like this. This one feels… Warm and protective, yet very powerful.'_ A breeze passed by him. A very familiar smell filled his nose… He looked to the sky. Yes, it was her!

"Lucy!" he shouted, not paying attention to anything else. Erza turned to look at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, panting. He pointed a finger towards the sky.

"Everyone! Look! It's Lucy, she has come back!" he shouted, delighted. Everybody turned their eyes to the sky. It was true. Lucy was back. There she floated in the sky.

"Lucy! You're back!" They all shouted in unison. But they forgot one thing: The Alpine Lizard behind them, and it was getting ready to them with its front legs…

* * *

"You idiots!" Lucy hissed. She instantly vanished and appeared on the ground. The ground shook as the lizard hit it…

To be continued… (Not really. Had to tease you a bit :D )

"Are you all totally out of your mind?" Lucy yelled. They all turned around. Lucy stood there with a huge magic circle under her and behind was a yellow shield. It was huge and it had easily blocked the attack. It was made from Lucy's magical power. She was panting.

"How many times Master has told you not lose your focus when fighting? You could have all died!" she harangued. They all were shocked about her sudden appearance. Then they broke into huge smiles and grins and ran towards her, to greet her. Two huge hissing sounds filled the air. Lucy could see that the flames had been put out. Lucy held her arm out, indicating her friends to stop, and turned her back towards them, facing the lizard. The lizard retreated and hit the shield again. A small crack appeared. It looked angry.

"Ooh… Are you angry Alpine Lizard-san?" Lucy mocked it.

"Have you seen this species before Lucy?" Lucy heard Erza ask.

"Yes, while I was training, I encountered it a couple times, but I've never seen one so big before," she answered, "But you stand for now. Stay behind this shield, I don't want you to get hurt accidently. I'll take care of it." Lucy heard Natsu stepping a step forward.

"Natsu, I said I'll take of it. I don't need your help and I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but as I said I don't want you to get hurt accidently," Lucy said and Natsu stopped.

"Can you really take care of that alone?" he asked suspiciously, "We've been fighting it for a while, and didn't even manage to damage it much," he added.

"Have you managed to hit it while it has been restrained from moving?" she asked. Natsu shook his head. Lucy smiled.

"That's why you haven't been able to hit it through its scales. See how it is moving constantly its scales? That makes them so hard. If you can stop it from moving too much the scales will soften. That's why me and my spirits are a perfect match for it," Lucy explained. Just then Virgo, Loki, Sagittarius and Scorpio returned. Aquarius had already gone back to the Spirit World.

"They almost got themselves killed because I returned," Lucy said to Loki, "Back to business. Open the Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus! Open the Gate of the Crab! Cancer! Open the Gate of the Ram! Arias!"

"Oh. It's a Alpine Lizard," Taurus said, "Are we going to use IT, Lucy?"

"Yes, we're going to use IT. You all know what to do," Lucy answered."You wait behind this shield," she said to Natsu and the rest of the guild. They all nodded, curious about what Lucy is going to do. Virgo, Loki, Cancer, Arias, Taurus and Scorpio jumped to air, only Sagittarius remained on the ground. Each of them left a gap to the other spirit so that they surrounded the Alpine Lizard. All of her spirits in place stepped in front of her shield, held her hands outwards and closed her eyes.

"Channeling: Activate!" she shouted, her golden-yellow magic power flowing into her spirits. Now all her spirits closed their eyes, concentrating…

"Six Dimension Barricade!" her spirits said in unison, excluding Sagittarius. Lucy and theirs magic power had mixed and now it formed six rounded pieces that formed a cone-like thing around the Alpine Lizard. It didn't have almost at all space to move. Now it was Sagittarius's turn. Lucy channeled quite a bit of her magical power into him. He looked surprised at the amount of magical power he got from Lucy.

"You'll need it. It's tougher than the others we've encountered, " Lucy said. Now Sagittarius jumped to the sky and floated there for a while, with the help of small flames created with magic. He took a stance and yellow-blue magic engulfed his arrow. He shot it through one of barricades and moved to the next one very fast and shot another arrow engulfed in yellow-blue flames. Sagittarius did the same thing through the other four barricades. All the arrows went through the lizard and it fell lifeless on the ground crushing a building. Lucy staggered a little bit, but regained her balance quickly. The shield shattered as Lucy turned to face her friends. Their mouths hung open from shock. Lucy laughed nervously.

"Come on, it wasn't that shocking… Or was it?" Lucy said, blushing. Erza was the first to speak up.

"It is pretty shocking seeing how strong you've become but that's not as shocking as the fact that you just crushed half of our Guild!" she said, pointing at the building.

"What? No way! Did I really?" Lucy panicked. She continued mumbling something, but no-one couldn't tell what she was saying. Lucy went check the side that hadn't gotten crushed by Alpine Lizard. There was the "Fairy Tail" -sign.

"I'm so sorry. I'll take full responsibility, and get the money for the repairs," Lucy said.

"Ah. Don't worry about such things. It's not as important as You being back!" Erza celebrated and ran to hug Lucy. Soon everybody else were greeting her, since all of the guild members that were in the city had returned to the guild building. Lucy got a little dizzy.

"I'm sorry. I've to sit for a while," she said weakly. Her nakamas looked at her with worried faces. Lucy smiled encouragingly. Loki took a seat beside her.

"How much of your magical power did you just spend?" he demanded to know.

"About half."

"That explains your dizziness," he said, rubbing his chin in thought. Lucy looked at her nakamas. Now their chins would've reached the ground if that would be possible.

"Is something wrong?" Lucy asked.

"You only used half of your magical power there?" Gray asked, bewildered.

"Yes. I can't see what's wrong with that," Lucy admitted.

"It's not like Alpine Lizard is indestructible. Even you, Natsu or Erza could've defeated it." she continued.

"Now I'm going to go choose a mission that's going get me enough money for rebuilding this guild," she said. Others didn't agree with this mission idea, so they argued until Master returned the next day.


	9. Fairy Tail's strongest team:Reunited

**I'm sorry that it took so long for this chapter to come out. I've been kind of lazy(which is why this chapter is so short) and school has taken a lot of time with exams and all. At first I intended this chapter to be totally different, with this upcoming mission but I decided to make that into an own chapter.** **This and the next chapter might seem a bit boring, but I hope you will still like them :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

Lucy stepped into the guild - well, into what was left of it. It was a mess: crushed dining tables and chairs, splinters of wood and broken glasses, their shattered pieces all around the floor. Her friends were still a bit surprised by her sudden appearance, and even more how much she had changed. She was different, not only much stronger, but she didn't seem the same as she was when she left the guild. To everybody even the air around Lucy felt determined.

Lucy laughed. "Jeez, I'm sorry everybody. I caused quite a mess," she said. Mira couldn't take it anymore. She slipped between everybody else and run to Lucy. Mirajane hugged Lucy, tears streaming down her face.

"Lucy! I've missed you so much! Everyone has. We were all so sad and down after you suddenly left us!" she sobbed at Lucy's shoulder. At first Lucy was a bit confused by Mira's reaction, but then she smiled and hugged her back.

"I've missed you all too. I'm sorry that I left like that but back then I felt it was the right thing to do." Soon all her friends were around her, welcoming her back. Then she felt that familiar magical power nearby. Her smile widened even more.

"What are smiling at Lucy?" Macao asked.

"Can't you guys feel that all so familiar magical power?" Lucy asked. "Master is here."

Soon Master stepped inside. He was winded, indicating that he had hurried to the guild after seeing at what had happened to the city.

"What's going on? Is everybody okay?" he asked.

"I'll explain, Master," the blonde stellar mage said. Makarov looked at her, his eyes enlarging as he did so.

"Lu- Lucy?" he stuttered out.

"Yes, I'm back. Have a seat," she answered, patting the bar desk that had been spared.

After explaining what had happened Lucy got up from her seat.

"Yosha, now that's over I'll go pick the mission,"Lucy said."Master, where are the S-class missions?" Makarov pointed towards the second floor.

"Thank you."

"Wait Lucy! Are you really planning to leave?" Natsu asked her.

"Yes. After all I have to pay for the damage I caused to our guild," she said back to him.

"But you just got back here!" Gray said, loudly.

"I'm sorry to leave again this soon but I feel so bad about destroying our guild hall that I have to get the money for repairing this. And at the same time I can gather it for Magnolia," Lucy said sadly. Then she disappeared and was on the second floor. This surprised Makarov.

"Lucy!" he yelled, "How did you learn that magic? How well can you use it?

"You mean my teleportation magic?" she asked. He nodded, with a frown.

"I learned it from a book that I found while I was training, and I can use it quite well. I can teleport even to those whose magical power I can sense. This surprised Makarov a lot.

"_She is very advanced in using that. I just hope she hasn't found out about IT, or even more that she doesn't possess it…" _Makarov thought.

Lucy was looking at the S-Class missions. Luckily the second floor had been spared from the Alpine Lizard. She was looking for a reward of at least 1,000,000 jewels. Then it caught her eye, a mission with a reward of 1,500,000 jewels. She picked it up and quickly read it through. The task was to help the local people rid of a curse. The sheet said: Ten Year Mission. She took it and went back downstairs. She smiled at the sight in front of her. They all were there: Natsu, Gray, Happy and Erza. Behind them she saw unfamiliar faces.

'_I see. New members' _she thought.

"We're coming with you," Natsu declared.

"I'm fine with that, but wasn't there an important event for Fairy Tail coming up?" she asked. Of course she knew that it was the S-Class Promotion Trial but she couldn't say that aloud. It wouldn't have nice consequences. Natsu looked confused, but Gray caught her meaning.

"You mean the S-Class Promotion Trial. This is a good chance to shine for that and this will be good for training," Gray said with a smirk.

"Okay, if you have made up your minds then it is settled. You're coming with me, but I'm warning you. This won't be easy. This mission is a Ten Year Mission." Lucy laughed at their expressions, even if it was brief. They were afraid. Then Natsu smiled widely.

"Now I'm all fired up! This will be fun!" he cried.

"Now, before we leave, could you introduce me to these new members of our team?" Lucy asked kindly and smiled at the blue-haired small girl and a white cat behind Erza.

Erza smiled. "Lucy, meet Wendy and Charle. Wendy is our sky dragon slayer and Charle is a cat with the same powers as Happy," she said.

"Wow! You are a dragon slayer like Natsu and Gajeel! Pleased to meet you," Lucy said to Wendy, and smiled.

"Pl- pleased to meet you too," Wendy answered, clearly slightly scared. Lucy didn't miss this.

"Don't worry. Even if I seem a bit scary, I'm not that scary when you get to know me," she reassured Wendy.

"Yes you're," Gray and Natsu muttered quietly.

"What?" Lucy asked, glaring at them murderously.

"Nothing." Lucy greeted Charle too and they stepped outside. They waved their goodbyes to their friends and walked to the gate leading outside the city.

"Where are we going?" Natsu asked, excited about this mission. Lucy looked at the sheet.

"The town of Mathetor," she answered. Lucy took a map out and started to look for this town. She found it near the city where Blue Pegasus was. The sun was setting.

"We're going to rest there and continue to Mathetor tomorrow," Lucy said.

"Huh? How are we going to get there before nightfall?" Natsu asked.

"Like this," Lucy said, grabbing Natsu's hand. "Everyone put your hands on Natsu." When everyone touched Natsu, it was time to teleport.

"Here we go," Lucy said and created the magic circle and then they vanished.

* * *

**I'll try to get the next chapter out next week.**


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